Wireless communication systems are growing due to an increase in the number of mobile subscribers. Worldwide public demand, availability of cost-effective technology, and recent regulatory actions have all contributed to this growth of wireless telecommunications. With an increase in telecommunications traffic, infrastructures of cellular wireless systems may need to be reconfigured.
The infrastructure of a cellular wireless system may be reconfigured in many ways, such as by reallocating resources, reconfiguring cell sites, or by adding wireless communication equipment, such as a new base station or additional antennas for an existing base station. The coverage area of a base station may be reconfigured as well to provide service to additional areas. In addition, an increase in cell sites may be necessary to support an increase in wireless telecommunication traffic.
Typically, design and implementation of a new cell site requires a substantial amount of time and effort. Implementation requires selecting a suitable location for the cell site, obtaining building permits, constructing the cell site, creating backhaul links for the cell site, and testing the cell site. Given the amount of work required to implement a new cell site, the location selected for the new cell site should result in an optimal network configuration. Therefore, projecting future communication loading in a wireless communication network may be desirable in order to effectively plan and deploy new cell sites or optimize existing sites.
Overview
A method of operating a computer system to project future communication loading for a wireless communication network that covers a geographic area having population data and a plurality of different land use descriptions comprises geographically separating the geographic area into a plurality of geographic bins, allocating historical communication loading to each one of the bins based on the population data and the land use descriptions, geographically allocating the bins to geographic sections of a new configuration for the wireless communication network, and totaling the historical communication loading from the bins in each one of the geographic sections to project the future communication loading for each one of the geographic sections in the new configuration of the wireless communication network.
A software product for projecting future communication loading for a wireless communication network that covers a geographic area having population data and a plurality of different land use descriptions is provided herein. The software product comprises software and a storage device to store the software. The software is configured to direct a processing system to geographically separate the geographic area into a plurality of geographic bins, allocate historical communication loading to each one of the bins based on the population data and the land use descriptions, geographically allocate the bins to geographic sections of a new configuration for the wireless communication network, and total the historical communication loading from the bins in each one of the geographic sections to project the future communication loading for each one of the geographic sections in the new configuration of the wireless communication network.